Some City Pharmacy Limited shops in Port Moresby will be facing pressure with medical supplies following the burning down of the Group’s office and warehouse complex at Gerehu on Sunday night, according to managing director Joe Barberis.
Mr Barberis said at a news conference yesterday which was also attended by CPL chairman Mahesh Patel that this situation was temporary and they are confident that supplies will not run out as they start the recovery process.
“This morning (yesterday) we got together as a group and started the rebuilding process so we have been talking to our suppliers and our stores which all opened today. So City Pharmacy shops, Stop N Shop supermarkets, Hardware Haus all opened for trade and will continue to trade,” he said.
“Our stores and pharmacies have sufficient supplies in the short term. We will accelerate the arrival of medicine; if we used to ship them in , we will now air freight them in to keep a constant supply.”
Mr Patel said they will also have the customs clear some containers of medical supplies which have not been used at the Port Moresby wharf to beef up their shops and pharmacies.
He added they will also use medical supplies in a container which was not affected by the fire.
“So in the coming days we are going to be OK, we will just have fast-track the procurement,” Mr.Pate said.
Meanwhile, Mr Barberis said they had reports of the fire starting about 10pm on Sunday, which got bigger and completely destroyed the property by midnight. According to their security reports, the fire fighter responded on time but could not do much.
They said at the current stage, they are unable to say the cause of the fire and the associated cost as they await the investigations and reports from the fire service and their insurance agent. No casualties were reported but a lot of their stock and office records were lost in the fire.
“We are working on our back office requirement, getting our computing system up and restoring all our records. This will take some time and will certainly be a big challenge for CPL but the team is working extremely well and we are confident that business will be back to normal as quickly as possible.”